Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
All work is copyrighted and may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, who can be contacted at www.paulspadoni.com

Sunday, April 16, 2017

Stopped by the Italian police, but I easily slip off the hook

Thursday, April 13

I’ve seen them many times—Italian
police officers standing on the roadside with their little red-green
paddles, stopping cars randomly for safety and document checks.
Police rarely stop drivers for speeding—they leave that for the
automatic cameras. By random good luck, I’ve never been chosen for
one of these routine inspections. Until today.

And it couldn’t have happened at a
better time. For two months prior, we had been using a little Fiat
Panda rented at a good price from our friends Eberhard and Dorothea.
We had to return it earlier this week and take out a standard rental
from the airport in Pisa to get us around for the rest of the month.
It might have been difficult to explain why we were driving a car
that belongs to a German citizen. I recently asked Eberhard to send
us a note explaining that we have permission to drive his car, but we
had used his car for many months without this letter, and luckily
were never stopped.

Now I am driving a rental car, which
has all the proper documents provided by the agency to show that I am
the legal driver. No problem.

But there could be a problem. I became
a resident of Montecarlo in March of 2016. Italian law states that
residents have one year to get a proper Italian license. The lady at
the police station reminded me of this law a couple of weeks ago when
I went in to apply for a parking permit. Unfortunately, one of the
patrol officers had just walked into the office 30 seconds prior, so
if he was listening, now he knows I don’t have a proper license.

One might ask why this is a problem for
me. Can’t I just go to the Italian DMV, or whatever it’s called,
show them my American license, and get one for Italy? Not a chance.
The two countries don’t have an equivalency agreement. I’ll have
to pass a written and driving test, all in Italian. Before that, I’ll
have to go to a driving school, which will have to certify that I am
ready to take the driving test. Then I’ll have to pay the school to
use their car to take the test, because only schools have cars with
dual controls, a requirement for the driving test. All of this is
expensive and time-consuming for someone who is only here three or
four months a year. Plus, I’m not sure I’m fluent enough in
Italian to pass the tests.

So I have an alternate plan, and today
it worked to perfection. The traffic stop occurred in Pescia. My
carta

d'identità
was beside me on the seat, but I covered it up. I handed over my
American license. ‟Hi, I’m from the United States,” I said.
‟This is my rental car.” I started to rummage in the glove box
for the rental documents, but the officer smiled and said that
wouldn’t be necessary.

Then he used his best English on me.
While his colleague took my license back to the patrol car for a
computer check, the first officer asked me about my stay in Italy.
‟Is this your first visit? Where are you staying? How do you like
it here? Do you have relatives here?”

I did start to worry a tiny bit because
the colleague took more than five minutes to check my license. Could
there be some possibility that his database would show somebody with
my name and birth date who just might be a resident of nearby
Montecarlo? Odds of this were slight, and I kept my cool. In the end,
it was probably just slow wifi, a common problem here. My license was
returned with a friendly smile.

It looks like my alternate plan will
work fine, so long as that officer from Montecarlo isn’t the one
who stops me. And I’ve never actually seen a traffic stop in
Montecarlo. Someday, I may spend more time in Italy. I may become
fluent in the language. And I might even get my license. But for
right now, I’m on vacation, and we’ll stick with plan A.

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About Me

First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.